The rickety bridge over the Mangdechu

22 February, 2009 - Five years after the initial project began, Trongsa dzongkhag recently contracted out the construction of a 9.3-km stretch of the 29-km Nabji-Korphu farm road.

But, with construction beginning only from halfway at Nimzhong, villagers of the 220 households in Korphu gewog are wondering if the road would be of any good to them.

The Nu 7.943 million 9.3-km farm road begins from Nimzhong, a starting point not properly connected to Wangdigang, where the road connects with the Gelephu-Trongsa highway. Villagers say that the road beginning from Nimzhong will not benefit the residents of the three villages of Nimzhong, Nabji and Korphu.

With increasing instances of landslides and falling debris along the 14 hairpin bends from Wangdigang to Mangdechu stretch, an unfinished bridge over the Mangdechu and incomplete base cutting from Mangdechu to Nimzhong, the present road is a waste, say villagers.

“The road will be useless without realignment of the 4.5 km stretch from Wangdigang to Mangdechu, a proper bridge over Mangdechu and complete base cutting from Mangdechu to Nimzhong village,” said a Nimzhong villager.

“Have you ever heard of a road that starts from halfway?” said a 67-year-old man from Nabji Korphu.

The contractor assigned to construct the Nimzhong-Nagpogangshar stretch even failed to ferry machinery to the other side of the river despite repeated attempts. The monsoon will make things worse as the road gets blocked even with light showers and boulders will constantly fall.

The outsourcing and upgrading of the farm road was decided during Trongsa’s 77th dzongkhag yargye tshogdue last year, after construction of the power-tiller track fell through. The construction, begun in September 2004, was supposed to have been completed within six months.

About Nu 9M was spent on the power tiller track construction, excluding ration provided by the world food programme (WFP) and about Nu 200,000-300,000 is spent every year for maintenance of the non-pliable power-tiller track.

Korphu gup Wangda said that the gewog requested the dzongkhag to realign the road but the dzongkhag could not approve it because of budget constrains. But villagers feel that realignment with an alternative take off point and road widening was must as the whole area was prone to landslide during monsoon.

However, dzongkhag officials assured that the road condition will improve since maintenance work is included in the contract and the bridge, assigned to department of roads as work deposit, will be completed before the construction of the Nimzhong to Nagpogangshar road was completed.